Is your social media lagging a bit? Are you feeling like you can’t get any traction and maybe there is no return on investment or time for you? Before you give up, check my list of thirty ways you can jump start your social media and stick with it for at least 30 days. Then at the end of 30 days, let me know if you see an increase in your results! I am guessing if you do ALL of this and you do it consistently for thirty days you might be jumping up and down with excitement and motivation in your business.

Set up a HootSuite dashboard to monitor and schedule content from one spot

Schedule three times each day to check in and connect with people – add it to your calendar NOW

Create lists to connect with prospects and to keep in touch with clients

Comment on your clients posts on a daily basis

Share positivity with people, keep the negativity in check.

Accept friend requests that make sense, follow and circle people back daily

Share your blog on all social networks, multiple times – that means you need to blog, ideally three times a week

Respond to comments people leave on your social networks on blog – when you ignore comments it makes others feel like they don’t matter

Reply to messages people send you on Social Media, treat these like an extension of your inbox

Make sure your profile info is complete – especially the contact info

Use a great picture of you, not your dog or your logo

Share content that is useful to others at least three times a day

Create video messages at least once a week and share them every day at different times on different networks

Take an active interest in other people and be authentic about it. Connect with one new person each day

Show up daily – if marketing your business matters, act like it

Set up a Facebook Page for your business and post content at least twice a day

Use Facebook Ads to get more visibility for your page and business – start by spending a dollar a day and see what happens

Use Facebook as your page and like three other business pages each day that compliment what you do and then comment on them

Create a custom Twitter background

Create a custom YouTube background

Fill out all the info on your YouTube account, most people leave this out

Create a Pinterest board with all your YouTube videos and another one with all your blog posts

Change up your Facebook Cover image every three weeks, make it look professionally branded

Use your website URL anywhere you can to let people know how to connect with your business

Set up a professional email address, “roxyfoxy@hotmail.com” is so 1980’s

Put your Twitter handle on your business card

Add Social Plug ins to your website

Don’t try and sell your stuff all the time, it only alienates people

Keep your tweets on Twitter, don’t broadcast them to other networks as people do not have context of Twitter conversation. Tweet at least twenty times a day, this can be a combination of tweets, re-tweets, and replies. It takes five minutes to tweet ten times so bonus points go to those who do thirty tweets a day.

Q: Is there a specific template or plan that I can use for my Social Media Strategy? I’m always bothered, feeling like I am missing out an integral part of the plan.

A: I don’t give you a specific template because everyone likes to work using different tools.

For example, I use Excel for all my business plans because I like to have a tab for the written plan, a tab for goals and a tab for sales forecasting all in one spot.

The really important elements are understanding your why, gaining real clarity around who your ideal client is, and then following the vision, goal, current reality template. Once you have those established identifying your action steps becomes easier.

One of my group coaching participants upgraded her program so that she has more private coaching included over the next three months and we spent a lot of time talking about her three client types yesterday. When she started to understand how being clear about who her clients are, it enabled her to identify who she wants to talk to. I know it was an AHA! moment. All that data you have around who your client is, becomes hugely valuable in creating your action plan.

For example, if your client was a woman between 30-40 who you know likes vampire shows, you know if you look at her Profile and you see Twilight Series, Anne Rice, True Blood stuff under movies or books she is your potentially your ideal client. The more you understand about the person, the more you can search for them by Likes/interests/demographics etc.

Have a Question of Your Own?

Each week I answer a question here on my blog so, don’t be shy! Send in your questions by leaving a comment here on my blog or:

Mine was a Chevrolet Chevette. It was red, it was old, it was ugly, and I wrecked it by driving too fast, losing control, and submerging it in a pond when I was 19. Back then, I had very little appreciation for cars, speed, or safety and to be frank, I am lucky my desire to drive fast did not harm me or someone else!

Later that same year, I got transferred to Mississauga to work at Square One for Fredelle Shoes as the Assistant Manager and because they thought I was a big shot (not really) I got to spend a month at the Novatel Hotel for free while I searched for a place to live. Every night I would walk back to the hotel from the shopping centre and I would see this black Mercedes and I always thought… some day.

Fast forward 23 years and the time has come for me to get my own. I picked up that car on Tuesday and I was struck by the experience that Mercedes creates for their clients. Yes it is a luxury product but I have bought other luxury items with far less appreciation for my business.

There are 14 little things that they did that really impressed me overall. I think there is much to be learned as business owners from this experience as every time you interact with a client or a potential client you are creating the experience of your business.

Every person working in the show room was professionally attired, friendly and made eye contact with me.

Each individual I was introduced to extended their hand out to greet me and repeated their name, smiling sincerely.

Upon arriving, my car was in the middle of the show room so it was the first thing I saw when I walked in.

I was offered coffee, juice or water when it was time to fill out the paperwork.

The office I sat in was super clean and organized, there was not even a garbage can in sight.

When they drove the car out of the showroom they sounded a bell to congratulate me on my new car.

The gas tank was full, car was clean and sparkly.

The salesperson paired my iPhone and demonstrated how to use voice controls for navigation and phone calls so I could drive safely.

The vehicle came equipped with a charger for my phone, that automatically picks up and plays my phone’s music

They took the time to point out the important things like the spare tire, hidden basket for grocery shopping, divider for pets, and a first aid kit which comes in every Mercedes.

They threw in extra bonus items that I did not expect like floor mats, and a coat hanger for the back of my seat.

They complimented me on my new car and let me know that I had made a great choice, and thanked me for my business.

They offered to take a picture of me picking up my car.

They gave me my keys with fun Mercedes bling attached! (very girly, and I like it!!)

There were no glitches – everything went exactly as it should, all my expectations were surpassed.

Each one of these things on its own might not be a huge deal but when you combine them all together and couple that with my desire to drive a Mercedes since the tender age of 19, they made quite the experience for me.

What can you learn from this in your business?

Do you pay attention to the details?

We all need to pay attention to the details, every one of them in our business because it is the details that create the experience. It is the experience that creates the word of mouth marketing, and in this case, world of mouth marketing because I have already shared the pictures of my new car everywhere I can think of!

A: RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is used to feed or aggregate content for the reader. The symbol for RSS looks like a Wi-Fi symbol on its side. It is about making the information you want to read all come to one place so you don’t have to visit multiple websites to find it.

First, they scheduled a tweet and then someone forgot to edit the scheduled tweet after the accident took place. Once they realized what had happened, they deleted the tweet. Then, Live Nation Ontario failed to address the error in sensitivity.

This was seen as insensitive because they failed to offer condolences on a life lost and many immediately complained about it on Twitter.

Seeing this, it struck me that, as a society, we might be expecting too much perfection from individuals who are trying to do the best they can. And, if you take the time to step back and analyze the whole picture, I think you just might agree.

While not an excuse for insensitive posts, Radiohead had only tweeted 87 times prior to this tragedy. I am actually a bit surprised that they Tweeted about it at all.

And while some may say, this was the official response from the band and you shouldn’t use Social Media if you aren’t going to use it “correctly” – I say “define correctly”. Everyone seems to have a different opinion on the definition of what is “correct” in Social Media. Personally, I believe that Tweeting about the death of someone in attendance at a concert (especially when it isn’t known who or how severely others are injured) could be seen as insensitive.

Live Nation Ontario was trying to be proactive and, in the face of tragedy, screwed up. There is no rule book that says, “when you schedule a tweet and there is an accident and someone dies, you must log into Hootesuite and remove all scheduled tweets.” Yes, it was unfortunate, but it was an oversight. I would hope that their minds were more concerned with what was actually happening and the well being of those in attendance rather than “what do we have in our scheduled Tweets?”

There is also no law that says scheduling tweets is a crime. I know that many in the industry think it’s bad business, but at times it just makes sense. And this is one of those situations. Live Nation handles thousands of events each year. It makes perfect sense that they would schedule some Tweets in anticipation of those events. I would go so far as to say it’s “good business”.

No one can see the future and you can’t plan every single aspect of your marketing around every possible scenario that could take place. No matter who you are, big or small, you can only do so much and you (or the person Tweeting for your company) are human.

Dealing with these types of situations is new to all of us. Public scrutiny and backlash in these situations can, unfortunately, create more fear around doing Social Media the “wrong way” rather than more openness to doing Social Media to begin with.

I had a great conversation on Twitter with Hendrik Pape about this and he was the one who said “Social media is judge, jury and executioner”. He also raised some very great points about companies owning up when they make a mistake, silence should never be an option. He said “Even experienced hikers hire guides guides for unfamiliar territory, Social Media may be easy, but it has it’s risks too.”

While I completely agree with Hendrik, I am not certain that all crimes deserve the same punishment. I think we need to cut people some slack.

The problem with social media is, every action or inaction is documented and readily available for criticism. Once the criticism starts it sort of feels like you are damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

We must all remember that situations like this are the exception not the norm.

One of the things people often say to me is “How do I get more people to like my business page on Facebook?” Sometimes they are focused on the wrong thing – just moving the number, instead of creating a community with the right people who like their Facebook Page. I have some tips that can help you, a few easy ways to attract quality likes to your page! Watch and see…

I have to admit, over the last few years I have subscribed to a LOT of lists. I have studied, learned and consumed more content than the average person probably does in a lifetime.

Some of the lists that I am on, keep me really engaged and I love to read and hear from those individuals. Others are more like a honeymoon gone bad. They are okay for a bit and then they get downright annoying.

DISCLOSURE: I am not an internet marketing billionaire, the opinions of what irritates me are 100% my own.

I do believe that it is my responsibility to build trust and value for the people who choose to be part of my community in any way – whether you sign up for my Free Tool Kit, you like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter… you get it.

Here are some ways I think email marketing can jeopardize your ability to really connect and add value for the community you are trying to serve:

1. Promoting a different affiliate partner every fricken week. That’s right, every week you are trying to sell someone else’s program and you are making it sound like this is a life saving opportunity that you are providing me with. This kind of reminds me of 1980’s style multilevel marketing. It’s kind of gross and no none really loves it.

If you are going to be an affiliate—choose with care, and only endorse people you know will offer extreme value to your list. For example: I regularly talk about my friend Christine Kane—I am NOT an affiliate—I am a girlfriend who loves her work and believes it can add value to your life. That’s why I talk about her… that’s it.

2. Campaigning all the time: “buy my stuff, buy my stuff!!!” Stop it! If it’s not your last affiliate partner’s program you are trying to sell me, it is your own. I get it, I make money on the web too but I am also sensitive to when enough is enough. You didn’t sign up for my BUY MY STUFF LETTER, you signed up for my newsletter. I’d like to always have a way that you can take it further by working with me in that newsletter, but I also get that you don’t want me emailing you my “closed for the season, absolute last chance to buy this widget” every day.

Less can be more.

3. Emailing me or Direct Messaging me on Social networks to sell me before you have even said hello. Don’t email me on Facebook or direct message me on Twitter if we have never had any type of conversation and invite me to your next event or to buy your stuff. It’s just not cool, it actually makes you look desperate.

4. Stealing my email address and adding me to your list without my permission. This applies to finding it on my website and feeling like just because you subscribed to my content I should be forced to subscribe to yours…. or to meeting me at a networking event and thinking that when you ask for my card it is blanket permission to add me to your list.

It’s not, please don’t. This makes you look like an amateur.

5. Sharing my email with your affiliate buddies. I know this happens because I have received email in my inbox from a very very well known internet marketer signed by another very well known internet marketer whose list I was not on. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Sloppy error and definite list sharing. Not cool but at least I know who does it.

6. If I do buy something from you, and I email you with any type of problem, you need to reply as quickly as you would if I was asking about buying. I don’t care if you made so much money you are traveling the world and didn’t get my email until a week later. Hire an assistant and treat problems your clients communicate via email as seriously as you do emails asking where the buy my stuff link is.

7. Ignoring my reply. Reply to me when I send you a message. It is not polite to ignore potential clients. If I am sending you an email there is a reason why. Ignoring my email just makes me feel like you do not value me as an individual.

Get good at replying to people with options, and at saying no to asks that you cannot do, but don’t get good at ignoring people. This will cost you money.

8. Use of an Auto-Responder to tell me you don’t care. Replies to your email generate an auto responder to tell me this “inbox” is not monitored.

This is like a cardinal sin when it comes to email marketing and one of the best ways to irritate a potential new client. I am not kidding, this happens, I have seen auto responders telling me the inbox is not monitored, or better yet telling me to email someone else.

Imagine walking into a Retail Store and the clerk says “Sorry, the people who work here are three blocks down the street, you have to go there.”

9. Emails from your Assistant appearing to be you. Don’t send me an email from your email account signed by your assistant or someone else on your team! I get it, some people are busy and they have their assistant manage email for them but replying from YOUR account signed by someone else just makes me feel a wee bit violated. What if I send you something private via email? Who else is reading it?

The best way to do this is have your assistant respond from her own email and mention that are taking care of this for you. This way I don’t feel like you are so self important that you don’t actually read any of your email. (aka, my communication does not matter)

10. Could you spell my name right??? Fix the typo in the way you spelled my name. I know this is hard, and it is tricky as 99.9% of typos are generated when the person signed up. There is nothing worse than having someone email you over and over again with your name spelled the wrong way.

Use a bit of judgement, eyeball the new subscribers on your list from time to time and if it looks funny, ask the person if you are spelling their name right. This requires a bit of time and means that you actually care about them which is important if you are in business.

That’s it. A wee bit of a rant but these are the ten things that drive me a bit crazy on the receiving end of email marketing.

Oh yeah, last but not least, I really don’t need to know how many people are on your list. When you tell me in your opening I am one hundreds of thousands my question is who does that piece of information serve? It certainly doesn’t make me feel special, it might make your ego feel great that your list is that big but last time I checked we each receive our email on an individual basis and I just want to feel like my subscription actually matters.

What drives you crazy when it comes to email marketing? I am sure I have missed at least ten more points!!!

Q: I recently attended a live event and received a lot of business cards. Is it ok for me to add them to my email list?

A: Absolutely NOT! While I do gather business cards at events, I never ever add them to my list without getting permission first. My rule of thumb is to return home, add them into my address book, send a “thank you for connecting” email and ASK THEM if they would like to receive my newsletter. Remember, a little professional courtesy goes a long way. And, adding people to your list without permission will get you in some big trouble!

You can find more in-depth information about email lists by clicking here.

Have a Question of Your Own?

Each week I answer a question here on my blog so, don’t be shy! Send in your questions by leaving a comment here on my blog or:

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